GRANVILLE - Thomas Patton enjoyed a bit of a Throwback Thursday on his return to Bryn Du.

The Granville graduate had two others on his heels throughout the first mile, but he pulled away for the victory (10:23.3) in the second and final 3-kilometer Bryn Du Summer Cross Country Series race. Once his adrenaline kicked in, he was not going to give up the title.

"Coming off the line, I was the front-runner, so I said, 'OK, I've got a shot to win this,'" Patton said. "I realized too once you come off the line in the lead, you don't want to give that up. At that point after I was leading for a mile or a mile and a half, if I got out-kicked, it was going to be a sad story. You don't want that."

The schedule previously had never worked out for Patton, who will be a sophomore at Case Western Reserve this fall, to participate in the series. He is in the midst of 50- to 60-mile weeks, so a chance to throw in a bit of speed work was welcome.

"This was our high school course, so a lot of it felt familiar," Patton said. "It's nice to be on grass. It's a lot better for preventing injuries, and you really don't get a chance over the summer to be able to run a fast distance like 3,000 meters."

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Stephen Epps, 13, of Utica, encourages his brother Sabe Epps, 4, and Evie Bone, 10, of Newark, to reach the finish of the fun run Thursday during the Bryn Du Summer Cross Country Series.(Photo: Kurt Snyder/The Advocate)

Finishing runner-up and not far behind Patton was Granville Christian sophomore Ian Law (10:41.3). Law finished his freshman season with a personal best of 18:27, and he already is on pace to break the 18-minute mark when the season begins next month.

Law did not show any fear flanked by a pair of college students. Placing third was David Curren, of New Albany (11:02.7).

"My goal was to just be in the front pack and give it my all at the end," Law said. "I did better than I expected. When you are running so many miles during the week, it's nice to get a throwback to middle school distance."

Law also enjoyed having a number of his GCA teammates competing with him. It has been a struggle for the Lions to consistently field a full varsity complement of five runners, so the cross country and soccer programs often share athletes.

"It's nice to get some guys out here to run with us just to pace ourselves and be a group and represent GCA as a whole," Law said.

Newark middle school coach George Brown had his first chance to see his young Wildcats compete. Brown received the middle school job after David Clark was promoted to head varsity coach.

"We had a few first timers today, a few eighth-grade girls that are new, so we encourage this as an opportunity for them to get a feel for the course," Brown said. "We get those first-race jitters out of the way. It is a little bit tougher because they are running against high school kids, but we assure them their actual races they will be running against 50 to 100 junior high kids their age."

Newark's high school and middle school programs will return to Bryn Du for the season-opening Newark Catholic Invitational on Aug. 25 after a few weeks of official practices.

"We have been running three times a week in the mornings just getting out and seeing if we can run without stopping," Brown said. "They are trying to figure out their pacing right now. When we start practices and do a little bit of speed work and hill work, things will click for them."